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ב"ה

Goosebumps

Friday, 17 January, 2020 - 2:40 am

 By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

He was ‘barmitzvah’ed’ sixty years ago. 

Still practices orthopedic surgery at a hospital in L.A. 

A fellow surgeon at the same hospital has a wife Elizabeth whose father moved to Thailand and remarried. 

Elizabeths father passed away three years ago and asked his family to have the rabbi put on his ‘Jewish Cap’ before the ceremony. That lead to my going out to Pathum Thani and facilitating Jewish burial in place of the planned cremation.

Elizabeth had wanted to send a donation to the Jewish community in Thailand to help with the burial costs but never got to it. Her husband the surgeon heard that his colleague Dr. B. was traveling to Thailand. Elizabeth asked if he could please deliver the donation personally.

On Monday January 13, Dr. B. looked for our Synagogue, found me at our offices behind J Cafe and hand delivered the donation. After a delightful conversation, I offered Dr. B. the opportunity to put on tefillin. He accepted gratefully and told me it was the first time since his bar mitzvah. Some sixty years back. 

He enjoyed the experience and wrote me the following note:

Dear Rabbi Kantor,

It was our pleasure meeting you and spending time with you at the Cafe! We enjoyed you company and hospitality very much. You have rekindled my desire to use my Tefillin and attend more services at home!! 

Respectfully Dr. B.

I decide to share the story because it follows on so aptly from last week’s story about Paul Stone.

It brings home the point how sometimes good deeds can be added in this world through things you have done, children you have raised or people you have inspired.  

There is a reason I choose to share these stories. Through telling these stories, others are inspired to add in their own Jewish observances and kindnesses to others. The eternal merit of these good deeds goes to those whose memory inspired them.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had registered a patent and would keep getting royalties long after you were retired? It’s the same thing when people do mitzvahs and deeds of kindness in one’s merit or fueled by something they have planted in the past. By sharing these inspirations with the many who read them, the souls of those who have passed are getting nachas and delight in Gan Eden.

Here is a classic case of an investment that yields Mitzvah dividends after many decades. Tzedaka was given in memory of Al Baron and tefillin laid because of the child he had raised ages ago in his youth. She in turn inspired her husband’s colleague to come and visit the shul. 

Here is the part that gives me goosebumps: 

As I was writing this article, I looked up the article I wrote three years ago about Al’s burial. I noticed that it was also the same Parsha of Shemot. That is providential I thought to myself. I decided to look up the date of Al’s passing. 

According to my records, Al passed away on the evening leading to Tevet 17. The meeting with Dr. B. took place on Monday Tevet 16, within hours of the beginning of the third yahrtzeit. 

I find myself tearing from emotion as I realize the preciseness of G-d’s Providence. What a gift Al got in Heaven, exactly three years after his passing a few hours short of the exact time of his passing. What a way to mark the yahrtzeit. By Dr. B. giving tzedakah and laying tefillin and undertaking to please G-d continue to use his tefillin to Al’s credit.

This story reminds me of what King Solomon taught in the book of Mishlei (Ecclesiastes) Cast your bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days…

To our youth, the millennials and post millennials, I want to use this story to remind us that we need patience. Some things take decades to develop…

This weeks Parsha is a classic example. The Torah tells us that Moshe grew up and fled Egypt. The next time the Torah identifies Moshe’s age is when he comes back to Egypt. By that time Moshe is eighty years old. The Midrash, quoting the orally handed down tradition from Sinai, fills in the blanks. It gives a description of Moshe’s dazzling rise to becoming the king of Ethiopia during the many decades that are unaccounted for in this weeks Parsha. 

Click here for more details.

In summation. 

Doing the right thing is always the right thing!

Sometimes you get to see the blessing inherent in making the proper moral and religious choices immediately.

Sometimes it takes time.

For those who have patience, and persevere in treading the right path, invariably G-d shows His presence.

Don’t despair if you don’t see the ‘endgame’ right at the beginning. 

You don’t fulfil your mission on earth in one fell swoop. It takes seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and even decades. The heroes, the righteous Tzadikim of our Torah and in our contemporary times, remind us by the way they lived their lives, that we need to keep on sprinting, jogging, brisk walking or at the very least trudging. 

If need be, focus on putting one foot in front of the other. 

My friend David Keen took me with him to the 23.5 km bicycle path around Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. It sounded really cool and fun. Cycling around the airport. It wasn’t as blissful as it sounds. I will be honest, at the 10km mark I had had enough. But the only way to quit is to have the embarrassment of the emergency ‘pickup truck’ deliver you to the end of the track. David kept on telling me that ‘you can do it’ and I just focused on keeping on pedaling. Thank G-d, I made it. It gave me plenty of time to ponder and realize the lessons to be learned. 

One of them is that you simply must keep moving forward. 

When the going gets tough? The tough get going. 

Don’t stop. Onward march. 

Eventually we will get there. 

Where is there?

The endgame is that we all go to the The Promised Land! With Mashiach’s coming. May it be soon, AMEN!!!

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

after 23.5 km around bangkok airport.jpeg 



 

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